“Valentine's Day this year happened to fall on the Friday before the three-day President's Day weekend, which perhaps fueled additional spending on what is normally a busy day for merchants,” said Stan Hollen, president/CEO, CO-OP Financial Services. “That factor combined with an improving economy made Valentine's Day 2014 a perfect marriage of love and commerce.”

Transaction data was pulled from the debit and credit transactions of cardholding members of credit unions across the country using CO-OP Total Revelation, a data analytics tool from CO-OP.

The dollar amounts were tracked from Feb. 12 to 14, 2013, and compared to cardholder spending from Feb. 12 to 14, 2014.

Among the highlights of the CO-OP Total Revelation data:

Data was tracked for a total of 16 different types of merchants. The grand total for all merchants saw a 19% increase in dollars spent in 2014 compared to the previous year.

Cash withdrawals by transactions were up by 18%.

Restaurants showed a 20% increase in dollars spent year over year.

Pay television services showed a 28% increase in dollars spent year over year.

The only category to show a decline from the previous year was video rentals – down 4%.